The University of Minnesota’s McNeal Hall is home to something of a dream closet: an archive of more than twenty thousand articles of vintage couture. Most of these pieces were bought long ago, and mostly by Minnesota women with the wherewithal to shop the Oval Room or the old Young-Quinlan and Frank Murphy department stores … Read more
Call it the forerunner of the demolition derby. One hundred and ten years ago, tens of thousands of people gathered to witness the collision between two late-model steam-powered locomotives in Crush, an east Texas town specially established for the event. While it was conceived by one William George Crush as a promotional stunt for his … Read more
Minnesota’s northwoods overshadow its southwestern prairies, but Jim Brandenburg—the acclaimed nature photographer and Ely resident who’s best known for his images of woodlands and lakes—is doing his part to change that. His foundation is working with the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service to bring back the tall grass prairie on hundreds of acres near … Read more
What do you get when you pair a television-production designer—the guy responsible for the look of shows like Law & Order and The Sopranos—with a woman who, as a former production designer for Matthew Barney, was instrumental in translating the bizarre visions of Mr. Björk into real-life objects? SooVAC will answer that question with Quantum … Read more
So a burned-out social worker walks into a bar … and sets about drowning his sorrows. Just as he gets to talking smack about the cadre of mentally and physically disabled clients he serves, they begin showing up at the bar in droves. Sure, Interact’s productions often deal with disabled people and their challenges, but … Read more
The script for this eighteenth-century comedy of British manners, stereotypes, and romantic entanglements is quite a mouthful, but by adding a few musical flourishes, the Jungle aims to create a rather more rollicking production. However, no amount of song and dance can steal the show from Mrs. Malaprop, the source of the term malapropism. A … Read more
Word is slowly getting around about the Ten Thousand Things company, which is best known for playing prisons and halfway houses. By reducing layers of artifice to the simplest costumes and rudimentary props and using only the best actors in town, this troupe has proven its knack for tapping into the emotional core of classical … Read more
Too often the only news most Americans hear from the Indian subcontinent involves violence between Hindus and Muslims there. But followers of these religions weren’t always at each other’s throats. Kathak, the classical Indian style of dance that originated in the twelfth century, for example, was patronized by Hindu and Muslim rulers alike. As a … Read more
Roughly translating as “dance of utter darkness,” Japanese Butoh evolved in large part amid the rubble left by World War II. Sankai Juku, the thirty-year-old company that’s appeared here previously a handful of times, is perhaps the most acclaimed practitioner of this avant-garde form. The troupe’s approach favors minimalist movements and poses that appear heavier … Read more
We enjoy a make-over just as much as anybody. But when it happens to a favorite dining spot, we get a smidge skittish. Will they go too glossy? Will they forget that we like to bring the kids with us? Happily, the Edina Grill has been successfully updated without losing its soul. There’s a new … Read more